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Dryads
Dryads are fey spirits that have been bound to trees through arcane means, sometimes as punishment and sometimes as a means of preservation. Though those who first bound dryads to the feywild forests of Almeras are long gone, the dryads remain and have a fierce bond with the trees they cherish and protect. Description A dryad can emerge from the tree and travel the lands around it, but the tree remains their home and roots them to the world. As long as the tree remains healthy and unharmed, the dryad stays forever youthful and alluring. If the tree is harmed, he or she suffers. If the tree is ever destroyed, the dryad descends into madness. As a result, most dryads remain close to their own tree in order to protect it, acting as guardians of their woodland realms. Rarely, however, some circumstance may push a dryad to leave its forest behind for a time in order to combat something that he or she sees as threatening their woodland home—and more specifically, their own tree. Such instances are unusual, typically requiring the threat to be either specifically directed at the dryad’s tree, or so large in scope that the entire forest would be in danger. In a very real sense, dryads are creatures of the woods, and this allows them to speak with plants and animals, as well as teleport from one tree to another to lure interlopers away from their groves. If pressed, a dryad can beguile humanoids with her enchantments, turning enemies into friends, and they also know a handful of useful spells. Culture & Society Since dryads are created rather than born, there is no real concept of a dryad society. Although in some instances they may interact with each other if they happen to inhabit the same woodland, it’s more common for a dryad to spend its time with nearby animals and the trees, whom they regard as the wisest and most sacred of creations. Given their attachment to forests, dryads do not often interact with other sapient races. They are more likely to find friends among elves, firbolg, and druids, usually treating others with suspicion or even fear. One further hardship for a dryad among other civilizations are the concepts of firewood and timber. A dryad that sees a tree being cut down equates the experience to witnessing a murder. It can talk to that tree, hear its wisdom and ancient knowledge, understand how it nourishes the earth and is nourished in turn. As a result, dryads may sometimes commit desperate and wild acts to protect trees in ways that seem illogical to many other races. History Properties * Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1. * Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. * Forest Magic. You know the druidcraft cantrip. * Speak with Beasts and Plants. You can communicate with beasts and plants as if you shared a language. * Tree Stride. Dryads have an incredibly strong affinity with trees, and can with some expended effort can travel between them. You can use 10 feet of your movement to step magically into one living tree within your reach and emerge from a second living tree within 60 feet of the first tree, appearing in an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the second tree. Both trees must be large or bigger. Once you use this ability, you must complete a long rest before you can use it again. * Fey Charm. As an action, you can target one humanoid or beast that you can see within 30 feet of you. If the target can see you, it must make a Wisdom saving throw (DC 8 + your Charisma modifier + your proficiency bonus), or be magically charmed, as if affected by the charm person spell. You can’t use this trait again until after you complete a short or long rest. * Treebound. Your life essence is bound to one specific tree. As long as that tree lives, so do you, but harm conferred upon the tree similarly extends to you. If your tree is destroyed, you immediately fall into crippling madness, as if affected by the feeblemind spell, for 24 hours. After this initial shock, you gain a new character flaw from the Indefinite Madness table (see page 260 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). The effects of feeblemind can be cured in the same ways as the spell, but your indefinite madness can only be cured by binding yourself to a new tree, or by the wish spell. If your tree dies and you do not bind yourself to a new tree within 30 days, you die, and a tree often grows where you fell or were buried. It is possible for you to become bound to a new tree by performing a woodland ritual that takes one day. This involves stitching a piece of the new tree’s bark onto your skin (which merges with you over time), emptying an ounce of your blood onto the roots of the tree, and a sacred and traditional dance of the forest. Category:Races Category:History Category:Culture & Society __FORCETOC__